The Tiny Economic Bubbles Of Oregon

Someone tweeted that a good theme for yesterday's revenue forecast would be the song "Roller Coaster of Love." While I'm not sure what love has to do with it, there's no doubt that Oregon's economy has been on a roller coaster lately and the latest forecast continues that trend:  Down slightly in the short term, up modestly in the mid-range time frame, and beyond that...who knows? But the song that was running through my head during yesterday's presentation was actually the 1960's easy-listening classic "Tiny Bubbles."

To wit: state economists say the state is on the road to recovery, but the economic rebound isn't happening so fast and so dramatically as to raise concerns about another collapse in the near future. In other words, Oregon's recovery is not coming in the form of a giant bubble that could burst at any moment. Instead, economists seemed to say, the recovery bubble is much smaller. Tiny, in fact. And when it comes to economic trends, it seems that tiny bubbles make economists happy.

So without knowing whether to apologize to the late Don Ho or to the lawmakers and economists whose voices I appropriated, here's a musical summary of the state's current economic outlook. Take a listen: